1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to onboard navigational instrumentation, and more specifically to collinear methods and apparatus for detecting and measuring position, orientation, movement, and velocity of an object in motion. These determinations are made from information provided within, and directly by, movement of the object itself relative to its initial or other previous spatial parameters. My U.S. Pat. No. 8,212,023, issued Jul. 3, 2012, is relevant here as background, of which the present invention is a substantial advance.
2. General Background
For purposes hereof, the terms “electromagnetic media”, “non-inertial media”, “light”, “beam of light”, “pulse of light”, “luminous flux” are equivalent unless otherwise stated. The terms “instruments”, “devices”, “apparatus” are similarly equivalent. The terms “body”, “object”, “inertial body”, “Inertial frame” are similarly equivalent. The terms “collinear”, “in-line”, “linearly”, “rectilinear” are similarly equivalent.
References in the English measurement system are intended to include metric equivalents, and vice versa.
Prior art includes various types of apparatus for measurement of an object's location, orientation, headings, and overall motion. All such devices utilize well-established methods, summarized as follows:                Measurement of motion of an object by comparing its positions relative to other objects or within defined characteristics of the Earth or terrestrial objects. For instance, providing information on position and its rate of change via satellite triangulation (GPS, GNSS).        Measurements of location, orientation, and heading of an object via magnetic characteristics of the Earth, i.e. by magnetic compass.        Measurements of displacement of an object as a function of its acceleration. For instance, providing measurements of speed as a derivative from the accelerometer/gyro measurement of acceleration including determining changes of angular position by fiber optic and laser gyroscopes the functions of which are based on Sagnac Effect.        
All of these methods have serious shortcomings, such as the need for continuous outside referencing, the lack of accuracy and consistency, and most significantly, the inability to continuously vectorize motion, i.e. they cannot provide simultaneous continuous information on speed and direction of displacement from direct onboard readings of an individual instrument.
The corpuscular-wave nature of light and its independence from inertial frames of reference due to photon's zero mass and zero electric charge (well defined and described in classic and quantum electrodynamics and special relativity) provide the basis for development of a new class of navigational instruments.
There are two well-known and technically established methods that utilize properties of light to measure displacements of an inertial body. One method is based on Michelson principles that utilize collinear propagations of light within a body which is in motion of any kind. The other is the Sagnac effect that utilizes propagations of light in a body under exclusively angular displacement. Sagnac is widely used in Fiber Optic and Laser Gyros. However, performance of gyro navigation equipment is affected by drifts, sporadic and non-linear measurements, the need for input of acceleration of gravity, and other factors. The only way to avoid those limitations or inadequacies is to avoid altogether the gyroscopic method of measurement, and replace it with measurements of collinear displacement via Michelson principles.
Advances in development of optoelectronic devices open the way for development of a new class of navigational devices that utilize collinear measurements of the displacement of a body relative to the displacement of light from within it in the measurement of the object's location, orientation, headings, and overall motion. The ability to measure terrestrial displacement of an object, relative to independent propagation of light within, it provides information about the object, relative to the Planetary axial latitudinal velocity, i.e. position, orientation, and direction of travel of the object relative to Planetary latitude and longitude from within and from the motion itself, and to graphically display such in conjunction with geographical maps and charts.